Code Geass Lelouch of the Rematch
by HufflepuffKat
Summary: Yet another time travel fic, but this time, Lelouch is wasting no time to make changes to the timeline. This time, he will be rebelling from inside the royal family, where he will be in plain sight, and Nunnally will remain at a safe distance from him. Semi- Hiatus
1. Prologue

"Yes... I destroy worlds... to create... anew."

Blackness started to take over his consciousness, finally, this was the penance he deserved. The only people who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed, and he had killed thousands. He had ensured that no-one would miss him when he was gone.

He had no regrets.

But then, he heard Nunnally crying.

Why was she crying? Didn't she hate him, the horrid demon king? The most feared and hated man in the world? Why didn't she rejoice in his death?

"Don't leave me brother!"

No, this wasn't right. Nunnally wasn't supposed to mourn him. She wasn't supposed to miss him. No. He couldn't leave her crying. No, he could fix things!

… But it was too late. There was nothing he could do. Checkmate was called, there was no rematch. Then his consciousness faded.

He stood in a very familiar setting, the world of C. Now, he guessed, it was time to be absorbed into the collective consciousness.

 **"** **It is time for me to repay my debt to you mortal."**

A voice boomed from the sky.

"Who are you?" Lelouch asked in response, checking his surroundings, but not seeing anything in the world of C except himself.

 **"** **You could say that I am the world of C, the collective consciousness, or if you prefer, God."**

Lelouch's eyes widened. God? Debt? Well, he guessed, he could say that he saved the collective consciousness's 'life' when he stopped his father.

"What would you suggest, God?"

 **"** **I could offer you many things, however, only two options would be of any value for you. I could either grant you a Code, so you can stay and enjoy the peaceful world you created, or, I could send you back to the beginning of your journey, so you can re-do your rebellion, and fix your past mistakes."**

That was quite the decision, it would be wonderful to go back and experience the new world he made, and he so desperately wanted to be with Nunnally after their long separation, but he knew that in the world he created, he could never risk Nunnally being seen with him. However, if he went back in time, he could change things, he knew so many things now that he didn't back then, he knew who he could and couldn't trust. He knew now to use his geass more wisely.

"I choose to go back in time, to fix the mistakes I made in the past. To do things better."

 **"** **Very well, then I will give one more thing, as you will be transferred back into your old body, your geass will return back to its original form, but I will give you a new extra geass, this will be the geass of absolute re-call, this geass will return the memories of events that occurred in this timeline to those you wish in the new timeline."**

"Is there anything else I should know about this new Geass?"

 **"** **There are three things; first of all, it will not return the memories of those who have died in this timeline, secondly, all geass orders you have given to them in this timeline will also be returned to them, and finally, if Sir Gottwald ever receives his geass canceller again, it will not erase the effects of this geass, as it was given to you by God."**

"Then I accept this geass and its terms."

 **"** **One more thing, as a final condition to this wish is you don't sacrifice your own life this time."**

"Why?" Lelouch asked genuinely curious.

 **"** **To waste such a rare wish granted to you would be an insult."**

Huh, it seems even God had pride, well, he was the collective conscious of humanity after all.

"I accept these terms!"

Then, the transparent floor beneath him collapsed and he fell into oblivion.


	2. Chapter 1: A different take

Lelouch re-entered his body like a bucket of cold water had been dunked on his head, almost causing him to lose his cool resolve.

He looked up, becoming reacquainted with his familiar surroundings. He was back at the Shinjuku Ghetto, with Clovis' royal guard pointing their weapons at him, C.C. on the floor, blood flowing from a bullet wound in her head.

At their hesitation, he smirked.

"What's wrong, I'm just a school boy, or can you sense it, the power of the Demon Emperor. You follow Britannia's mantra of the strong ruling over the weak, but what if someone over powered Britannia itself, what then? What would you do then?"

The soldiers looked spooked, but the held their ground.

"What are you at boy, there is no force more powerful than the great Britannian Empire." The leader proclaimed.

Lelouch, still smirking, sighed, activating his geass.

"I have no use for you. **I, Lelouch vi Britannia, 99** **th** **Emperor of Britannia, command you to, DIE!** "

Lelouch smirked at the corpses in front of him, before pulling a straight face and going into deep thought. What would he do now? He was here now, but what changes would he make, he could stick close to the timeline he already knew, so he could use his memory of the past to its full potential, but that seemed rather wasteful, considering that the changes he made now would already greatly affect the course of events in the future, and he could make large, game changing decisions now, that he wouldn't get a chance to later, yes that seemed best.

As expected, Villetta's Knightmare arrived and she demanded he identify himself. This was another problem, using his geass on her before had led her to become suspicious, and that led to the events that put Shirley in danger. He needed to be careful with dealing with Villetta.

He put his hands up/

"My name's Allen Spacer, my fathers a Duke, I have my identification in my breast pocket. Once my identity is confirmed I would like to request your protection."

Like clockwork, Villetta left her Knightmare to check his identification, and he activated his geass.

" **Whenever I mention Allen Spacer you will follower my orders**."

"What are you talking abou- Understood." Villetta fell under the effects of Lelouch's geass. This geass will make Villetta more manageable in case she ever tries to interfere again.

"Now, give me your Knightmare." Lelouch commanded while she was still under the geass' control.

"Understood." She replied throwing her keys to him. "The code is 1A45G8"

Lelouch grinned. His rebellion was beginning again, and he was already making progress.

Fighting against Clovis' military the first time was easy enough, the second time it was just plain boring. Clovis was nowhere near a worthy opponent, he was just too predictable, and relied too much on the brute force of the Britannian military. However, it did give him a good time to time to think.

Lelouch had gone through countless scenarios of the countless opportunities that were now at his fingertips, and so far, the most logical and beneficial solution he had come up with, he did not agree with.

Lelouch was surprised when his phone rang, but relaxed when he saw that it was Shirley calling, and answered.

"Hey Shirley I have a favour to ask." He hated what he was about to do, but he had to, it was the best way to keep those close to him safe.

 _'_ _If you want to someone safe, keep them at a distance.'_

Lelouch hated that way of thinking, but it was right, and he needed to do it.

"Um, Lelouch?" Shirley replied confused, not expecting him to ask her this when she called him.

"Please, Shirley, can you please get Milly on the phone, it's important. I've got myself into some trouble."

"Oh. I-I'll go get her, wait a moment." Lelouch could hear her frantically running through the halls of Ashford. The tension was making it hard for Lelouch to breath.

"Lelouch! Are you alright, Shirley seemed really worried." Milly's voice came on the phone.

"Milly, listen carefully. I may be found out by the military soon, unless I get back to Ashford by midnight, I want you to tell my sister I'm sorry and erase all evidence I went to Ashford. You may as well tell the council the truth, everything, it will be all over the news if I get caught, and I'd rather have them hear it by someone who knows the full story." Lelouch's voice was wavering by the end.

"Lelouch! Lelouch!" Milly called through the phone as he put it down and hung up. He took a deep breath in and focused back on the battle.

Now the moment of truth. Lelouch stood standing in front of Clovis, face hidden by the shadows and a gun pointed at his brother's head. He had just made Clovis call for a cease fire.

"Now that that's over with, what will I do now to amuse you? Have a cup of tea, perhaps play a game of chess?" Clovis joked.

"Chess, how nostalgic, remember, we use to play as boys, of course, I would always win, big brother." Lelouch stepped into the light.

"Brother? No, you couldn't?" Clovis was surprised, if sceptical.

Lelouch kneeled and put his arm to his chest.

"That's right, Lelouch vi Britannia, 11th prince of Britannia and 17th in line to the throne, at your service."

"Lelouch! How wonderful, we ought to return to the homeland immediately." Now, it was time to act, Lelouch was performed under the role of Zero countless times before, so he was used to it, even good at it, but he did not like the role he was about to play.

"Would the really except me back brother? I was exiled brother, I thought I wasn't allowed to come back to the homeland." Lelouch felt bile at the back of his throat as he made his voice sound desperate and full of yearning.

"Of course Lelouch, we were all sadden by your death we would be glad just to have you back! I'm sure Schneizel and Cornelia will support you, me too of course. And Odysseus would to…" Clovis started to ramble as Lelouch smirked inwardly. Then made a point to look shocked and looked down to his gun. Dropping it like it was made of acid.

"I'm sorry Clovis, I shouldn't have pointed a weapon at you, living amongst the commoners and elevens seems to have made me overly cautious and go to extreme measures. Please forgive me." The words tasted like venom in his mouth, but he had to swallow his pride if he wanted to succeed in his plans.

Clovis smirked at Lelouch's apology, signalling he had fallen for Lelouch's story.

"Of course Lelouch, it's completely understandable, I can't imagine what you had to go through."

Lelouch smirked, activating his geass.

"And one more thing, **Clovis, swear your loyalty to me!"**

 **And cut!**

 **So how did I go? I know, I'm going really of script now aren't I?**

 **I always wanted to know what would happen if Lelouch re-joined the royal family if he went back in time, and here it is!**


	3. Chapter 2: The loyal orange

**On to the next chapter, first of all, thank you to the wonderful people who have reviewed.**

 **And let's get straight to the story!**

By using his geass of Clovis to make him loyal to him, Lelouch knew that he had secured his safety within Area 11, however, Lelouch quickly learned, that loyalty did not equal obedience.

Unlike last time round, the end of their meeting was anti-climactic, Clovis had requested a servant to take Lelouch to a spare living quarters that was made for noble visitors, before contacting Schneizel and a few other siblings.

Lelouch discovered the flaw of his geass when Clovis decided to hold a party to celebrate Lelouch's return amongst the nobility the next day. Lelouch, of course, didn't want to attend, he hated the privileged nobility almost as much as his father. Clovis, however, instead insisted that Lelouch attend, rather than just leaving him be like his geass led Lelouch to expect.

None-the-less, he could very much use this party to his advantage to get in contact with people that, willing or not, support his cause.

Lelouch while in his room had spent much time contemplating whose memories he wished to retrieve, he was still considering retrieving Suzaku's, however, Suzaku's reaction would be too unpredictable, however, he knew, that there is one man that he get in contact with that he could trust.

"And this is Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald of the purist faction." Clovis 'introduced'. Clovis had been showing off Lelouch to all the nobility in Area 11.

Lelouch smirked genuinely pleased, before putting on a mask of curious ignorance.

"Gottwald? You were a member of my mother's royal guard, weren't you?" Clovis choked on his wine, shocked at Lelouch's calm mention of Marianne.

"Yes, your majesty, and may I sincerely apologise for my failure to-"Jeremiah never seemed to change.

"I have a few questions to ask you." Lelouch interrupted urgently.

"Clovis, could you please excuse me, I wish to talk to Sir Gottwald in private." Lelouch turned to Clovis. Clovis nodded, still in shock, and understanding why Lelouch would want to talk to Jeremiah.

"Y-yes, of course brother, just make sure to get back before my speech, you simply can't miss the chance to see it, it's-"But Lelouch had already started to walk towards the doors exciting the ballroom, Jeremiah hesitantly following in tow.

Lelouch turned a few corridors before finding an empty room that he was certain no-one would intrude on.

He entered the room and let Jeremiah follow suit before closing the door and locking it. When he turned back to Jeremiah his eyes widened to find Jeremiah kneeling on the floor with his arm to his chest.

"My prince, I-", Lelouch just sighed, still mildly irritated from the nobles arrogant, yet butt kissing, attitude, and, simply, not having the time to deal with this.

"Jeremiah, we already went through this, don't you **remember?** " he interrupted, activating his second geass for the first time. For a moment, Jeremiah only looked confused, before blinking rapidly a few times.

"Your Highness! You're alive!" Jeremiah seemed pleasantly shocked, eyes wide with a grin, which was a good sign. He also, on closer inspection, seemed uncomfortable with his old bodyweight, which was understandable considering he had just lost 50 kilos from his point of view, but Jeremiah was more focused on his sworn master.

"That's right Orange, but it's not quite what you think, the collective consciousness has sent me back to the very beginning of my rebellion, and by using a new geass they gave me, I have awakened your memories from our previous timeline." Lelouch explained, kneeling down to meet Jeremiah's eye level, who was still kneeling. Jeremiah's eyes momentarily before concentrating on his memory.

"My Lord? This time you didn't kill Clovis?" This time it was Lelouch who was shocked, he did not expect Jeremiah to remember the events of this timeline after he used his geass, but considering how the collective consciousness described the geass, it wasn't too surprising.

"Yes, that's right. This time I intend use my knowledge from the previous timeline to run my rebellion from within the imperial family, I already have Clovis under geass. Now, my Knight of Orange, can I count on you to help me once again?" Lelouch asked, not really expecting Jeremiah to decline, but still, it was better not to assume, as Jeremiah did swear allegiance to Clovis at one point, and still may hold some loyalty towards him.

However, as Lelouch expected, Jeremiah heartily replied, "Yes, your majesty! I, Jeremiah Gottwald, swore an oath of loyalty to you, and I swear I will see that loyalty through, I'll serve you till the day I die." Jeremiah held a steady, serious gaze, and Lelouch knew that Jeremiah wasn't turning back.

"Thank you, Jeremiah, your loyalty is much appreciated. I have decided to use this current celebration to organise a group of nobles to visit me later so I can geass them without being watched, however, I am still unable to leave the Viceroy's palace for the time being, I would like you to deliver these letters to Ashford Academy." Lelouch pulled out three letters from his jackets inner pocket that he had prepared earlier. One was addressed to Nunnally, another to the student council, and the final to Sayoko.

She was the second person he wanted to use his second geass on, but at the moment, he had no way of getting to her, but considering her skills as a ninja, and the pre-Zero low security at the palace, she might be able to get to him.

"Yes, my lord." Jeremiah obeyed, carefully taking the letters and storing them in his coat pocket, making sure not to fold them.

"My lord, if I may ask, have you recalled anyone else's memories." Jeremiah asked curiously, obviously wondering who their current allies are.

"No, just you, I haven't been able to get in contact with anyone else that I trust. How much time has passed since the Zero requiem from your point of view?" Lelouch asked curiously.

"It has been a year, my lord. You may also find it important to know that Empress Nunnally has revealed the secret of the Zero Requiem to the core members of the black knights, along with Princess Cornelia and the remaining Knights of the Round 9 months ago."

"What!" Lelouch exclaimed, mildly panicking. How could his sister do that, if the world knew about the Zero requiem, his sacrifice would have been for nothing. How did she know in the first place?

 _'_ _So that's why you…'_

 _The collective consciousness must have had a hand in this._

"Empress Nunnally explained that she could not stand to hear your name be sullied by those you sacrificed yourself for knowing the truth. She wouldn't reveal your secret to the world, but at least she would reveal it to those you knew, I'm sorry, my lord, but I could not deter her from this desire." In fact, Jeremiah was actually glad that she did, he also hated hearing his masters name being thrown around like trash, not receiving the respect it deserved.

Lelouch felt touched by Nunnally's sentiment, although he was upset that the truth was revealed.

After a few moments of silence, Jeremiah chose to continue.

"Most of those who were told were sympathetic, the Black Knights in general felt guilty for their betrayal, Ohgi more-so, he and Villetta are separated now, I don't know the details, but after their baby had a miscarriage, they began fighting. The knight of three, Gino, became rather, enthusiastic about you. Tohdoh felt that he had done a great dishonour. Cornelia, however, was angry, she believe that you were, foolish, for even attempting such a plan, although, it seems that she has forgiven you somewhat." Jeremiah tried to remember to mention everything that would be important for his young lord to know.

"Thank you, Jeremiah, it is going to take some time to process this information, but it will be very useful. Now I think it's best to go back to the ballroom before people come looking for us."

"Yes, my lord."

 **I know that this chapter wasn't the most original of ideas, but it sets things up for later chapters.**

 **Who do you think Lelouch should 'awaken'.**


	4. Chapter 3:New position, and an old ally

**First of all, I'd like to thank you all for the reviews, favourites and follows!**

 **I wanted to put up a 1000s views celebration, but in an unexpected, yet happy surprise, this fic gained views too fast and we're already reaching the 2000 view mark. Wow! I did not expect that.**

 **In the reviews, and in PMs, people have been asking me about what pairings I will have, I am still not sure if I will have romance, as it is not my cup of tea, but if I do, the pairings may be;**

 **Kallen x Lelouch**

 **OR**

 **C.C. x Lelouch**

 **(as much as I like Shirley, things the way they are right now would prevent a relationship)**

 **With the possible addition of the following ships;**

 **Sayoko x Jeremiah**

 **Suzaku x Euphie**

 **Cornelia x Guilford**

 **Dietard x fame (I joke, I joke)**

 **With that out of the way, let's get on with the fic!**

"So you and Nunnally got separated by a bombing partway through the invasion, that must have been hard for you." It was always difficult to be sure whether Schneizel's sympathy for his siblings was true, or just part of his 5-inch thick mask, but it wasn't too much of a problem for Lelouch, because he had to act like he believed it was real either way, and in Lelouch's eyes there was no redemption for Schneizel after he used his sister as both a pawn and bait before leaving her to die on the Damocles, even if he hadn't done it yet.

"Once again, I must apologies for not having this reunion in person, as always business in the EU is difficult and I cannot leave for the time being."

Schneizel and Lelouch for the last half hour had been talking via a visual satellite call, each with their own chess board in front of them, calling out their moves and moving each other's pieces respectively. However, Lelouch was not paying attention to the game as he would usually be doing, rather keeping the majority of his attention on making sure to guard his answers enough so Schneizel would not suspect his disloyalty to Britannia, yet making sure he seemed trusting enough so that wouldn't tip Schneizel off either.

"I heard from Clovis that you were getting on with the Nobles."

Now, how should he respond, even as a child he disliked the snobbish nobility, so if he said he enjoyed their company Schneizel would know he was lying, but saying that he was trying to earn their favour wouldn't be good either…

"I honestly dislike their company, but considering I have been missing for so long, living amongst the commoners, expressing my distaste would quickly would cause a much unneeded fuss. Have you heard from the emperor what he plans to do with me? I expect that he wants to bring back to Pendragon." Lelouch said trying to draw attention away from his activity with the nobles, before absently murmuring his next move, taking on of Schneizel's knights, causing him to thorough his eyebrows considering his next move.

"Actually the emperor is quite happy where you are now, he intends to place you in the military, start you off at basic training, but I see no need, I'm going to place you straight into the position of Imperator."

So Charles still believed that he was protecting him from V.V. huh, wait-.

"Imperator?!" An Imperator was a high ranking military position, an Imperator was in charge of an area's military, with more authority in military matters than said area's viceroy. It is a rank rarely used as it is extremely insulting to the Viceroy in charge of the area, who usually was a high ranking Nobleman or, as in this case a member of the imperial family.

"Yes, it is quite obvious that you're not paying too much attention to this game," Schneizel said gesturing to the chess board. "but I am still having a hard time beating you, over the years you were gone your skills in strategy have only improved, you should have no problem leading Area 11's military."

"But Clovis-"

"We both know that Clovis isn't skilled at strategy." Schneizel paused, looking of screen. "I apologies Lelouch, but I have a conference to get to now, so let's call this game a draw."

Lelouch nodded, "Let's, farewell Schneizel, good luck with the EU."

Schneizel nodded before the screen went black.

This was unexpected, Lelouch wasn't entirely sure if his new position was more of a gift or a burden. It was a positive because he would now most certainly be prepared for all military moves and have an advantage in his rebellion, but also, all military failure would make him frowned upon, definitely now that Schneizel recognised his strategic skill. Clovis wouldn't be too much of a worry, the geass placed on him would stop him from doing anything in retaliation.

Hmm, there were certainly a lot of opportunities.

It wasn't soon after Clovis was informed and the new change of command was put in place, and, as predicted, Clovis didn't get upset, but rather, happily started a new project of designing a new military uniform for Lelouch's men.

God have mercy on his soul.

Lelouch just prayed it wouldn't be light purple.

Lelouch was finally given a permanent living quarters, and a new office, where he was waiting now. He had received news from Jeremiah that his letters had been delivered without issues, as can be expected of Jeremiah, and he was now waiting for Sayoko to sneak in late at night. He had already requested that all security cameras to be taken out of his office, to protect his privacy, claiming that his secretary's office which guarded the only (door) entry to his office was enough.

He pondered about the actions he would take in the following few days. Tomorrow will be the official announcement of his return and his new position of command, then it is certain that the rest of the day will be run by the press. The day after would be his private meeting with some of the noblemen, in which he plans to geass them.

He considered, that now that he had command of the military, he could freely appoint Jeremiah his knight, which would make it easier for him to communicate with him without suspicion and rumours spreading.

He also considered the Black Knights. He would definitely need their help if he was to start his rebellion again, but this time he wouldn't be able to earn their trust the way he did the first time. Then came the issue of whether or not he should reveal his identity and geass to them this time.

He was pulled from his pondering when Sayoko allowed Lelouch to be aware of her presence.

"It's ok, I made sure they took all the cameras out of this room." He confirmed. Sayoko stepped into the light, concern in her eyes.

"Master Lelouch, are you alright? Nunnally and the student council are so worried about you. When Milly explained everything that was going on… What are you planning to do master Lelouch?" This was to be expected.

"I will explain everything, but first, I want you to **remember** , Sayoko." Sayoko's confusion turned into realisation, her eyes widening.

"Your majesty!"

"That's right, I've gone back in time to start my rebellion once again, can I count on you joining me again this time?"

Sayoko's eyes gained mischievous, cheeky glint as she smirked.

"Of course your majesty, what did you expect me to say?"

"I'm glad. Now this is the plan…"

 **Yes, while Sayoko is dutiful, she does have mischievous elements that I was happily reminded of while binge… watching? ... the picture dramas and audio episodes.**

 **And don't worry, I do plan on writing a mini chapter for the letters today, so you will get to know what they were about, just know that it won't be too detailed, because it's not too relevant to the story.**


	5. Mini-chapter: The letters

**MINI-CHAPTER**

 **This is a mini-chapter about the letters that Lelouch wrote to Sayoko, Nunnally, and the student council. It won't have responses as I originally planned, nor is it going to be very large. It's just going to have the letters content.**

 **(Stuff in bold brackets are not in letter)**

 **That's all.**

 _Dear Sayoko,_

 _As you may already know, I have been caught by the military. Do not worry, I have managed to convince my brother that it's just me and that I don't know if my dear sister is alive. Come find me after dark on the day you receive this, I'll explain what happened and what I am going to do._

 _読み取り後に手紙を燃やします_

 **(Burn these letters after read)**

 _ルルーシュ_

 **(Lelouch)**

 **(This will be read to Nunnally by Sayoko, so that's why it can be read plus translated)**

 _Dear Nunnally,_

 _I am so sorry for leaving you. Please know that by staying away from you, I am trying to protect you. I cannot let them get their hands on you._

 _Know that I love you, and that everything I do is so that we may be able to live together again in peace._

 _愛、あなたの兄_

 **(Love, your older brother)**

 _To the student council,_

 _I know you must be confused by what is going on, but I beg to you that you keep my previous existence at Ashford Academy a secret for my sister's sake, Milly should have explained why._

 _I am going to miss the fun filled days at Ashford, even Milly's cruel schemes and projects._

 _You were all the best friends I could ask for._

 _Best wishes and hoping that we may meet again,_

 _Your old Vice-president._

 **It may seem that Lelouch is a bit out of character, but remember, he wrote these with his time as the demon king fresh in his mind, and he's obviously feeling guilty about his past actions. I hope you liked this! If you don't, just tell me to stop and I will focus more on writing the actual plot.**

 **:)**


	6. Chapter 4: Saved by the cat hunt

**3000 views! I didn't even know this was possible. Thank you all for reading and reviewing this story, I really appreciate it!**

Lelouch prepared for the announcement, trouble on his mind. He had already geassed the press to ignore and shut down any stories that could involve Nunnally, but he was still concerned about the students at Ashford.

Even before he was Zero he had made an effort to hide Nunnally's presence at Ashford, she had private tutors, had meals in their private wing, and only had real contact with the student council, but it remained a fact that due to his own popularity, students at Ashford knew about her.

He had prevented them reporting her to the press, but there still remained websites on the internet that they report it themselves, or students whose family was Nobility could even say something to their parents which could become a serious problem.

Lelouch was certain that as soon as immediately after the cameras turned on students would connect the dots, it was only a matter of time before problems would emerge.

The cameras turned on and Lelouch put on a calm mask

 **(Meanwhile at Ashford)**

 **"** **Good morning Ashford! This is Milly, your student council president. Cat hunt everybody! There is a cat lose on campus, whoever can catch it and bring it to me will have their clubs funding doubled and big old kiss from a member of the student council."**

The entire school stopped what they were doing and scattered in search of the pesky cat with great enthusiasm and motivation.

"So, Sayoko, you're saying that the cat just ran into the room, took the mail, and ran for it?" Rivalz questioned, understandably, overwhelmed by Sayoko's unrealistic story.

"That's right, I'm sorry for causing such a fuss." Confirmed Sayoko, who bowed to hide her smirk.

"Don't worry, with the whole school searching, we'll find that cat and the mail in no time." Milly assured.

Lelouch made his introduction to the press.

' _I just hope Nunnally doesn't get hurt.'_

Shirley ran through the halls searching for the cat, still in her bathing suit from the swimming club. However, she wasn't looking where she was going and ran straight into somebody.

"Sorry!" She looked them over to find that it was their new Vice-President, a red haired girl named Kallen.

"No, it's alright, I wasn't looking where I was going either." Kallen replied in her weak, sickly voice, glancing at Shirley. "Why are you dressed like that?"

"Well I didn't exactly get the time to change, they're going to make us kiss someone!"

Kallen nodded. Then she saw a certain cat in the corner of her eye.

"Quick! I saw the cat run this way!" And both girls ran after the cat together."

Lelouch made his way, exiting the stage.

 _'_ _Maybe Milly will be able to convince the student body that Nunnally isn't my real sister. And if that doesn't work, we can always put Nunnally in hiding inside the Chinese Federation. She'll be safe from Britannia there.'_

"Kallen and Shirley caught the cat!" it seemed that magically, the entire school, the student council in front, immediately surrounded Kallen and Shirley in the hall.

"Now that you both caught the cat who gets the kiss?" Rivalz asked confused.

"It's Ok, I pass, Shirley can have it." Kallen didn't want to kiss anyone.

"No, it's OK, you have it, I insist." Shirley countered, she was in love with Lulu, but he wasn't here, because... Shirley didn't want to think of recent events, it made her heart hurt.

"No, really-" Kallen was interrupted by Nunnally.

"Hey! Come here you too."

Kallen and Shirley did as Nunnally asked and kneeled to be at her level, confused. They got a fright when Nunnally leaned over and kissed them both on the cheek.

"You both caught the cat, so you both get a kiss from an almost student council member."

Kallen just remained in shock, but Shirley cooed over Nunnally's antics.

Now that the action was over, the student body dispersed.

"So did you get what the cat was carrying?" Milly asked.

"Carrying, I didn't see the cat carrying something, did you Kallen?" Kallen just shook her head, now that she was not being forced to kiss someone, she was no longer interested.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry Sayoko, it seems we didn't get the mail back after all." Milly turned to Sayoko, who bowed.

"Actually ma'am, after you made that announcement, I checked a few of the rooms and found it on the floor, the cat must have dropped it. Sorry ma'am for not telling you earlier."

Milly's eyes widened for a second in realisation, before she smirked.

"It's just a shame that because of this cat hunt, nobody at school got to watch that announcement the news was going to make." Milly said, amusement in her voice. "Did you manage to catch what it was about, Sayoko?"

"What? What relevance does this have to the cat hunt?" Asked Kallen, the only person in the council who did not know their previous Vice-president's identity.

"Just something about a prince." Replied Sayoko, her voice slightly laced in amusement.

"I guessed it would be something boring like that." Milly said, dismissing the conversation, impressed that Sayoko managed to find a way to distract an entire school from finding out Lelouch's identity. Of course there would be other times that Lelouch would be on TV, he was a prince after all, but they wouldn't show his introduction again, meaning that students will find it a little harder to connect the dots on figuring out Nunnally's identity, at least buying them time.

Lelouch sat exhausted in his office late at night again. He had spent the rest of the day after his introduction worried sick about Nunnally, but being forced to put on a cool, indifferent mask in front of the interviewers, then the same thing with the area's generals, and even worse the camera's continued to be on the entire time so he didn't get the chance to geass them.

At least now he'd be able get some closure from Sayoko about how things went at Ashford. He leaned back on his chair.

"Master Lelouch." Sayoko alerted Lelouch of her presence. Lelouch smiled weakly in relief.

"How did things go today at Ashford? What were the students' reaction to the announcement?" Lelouch needed to know what kind of damage control was needed.

"Nobody at Ashford watched the announcement today, everyone was too busy with the cat hunt." Sayoko replied calmly.

"Cat hunt? ... Again? What did Arthur steel this time?" As nostalgic as it was, the idea that Arthur managed to steel something else was hard to imagine.

"He managed to steel the mail from me, I was unable to catch him myself, so Milly called a school wide cat hunt."

Oh, that made sense. There was no way Arthur would have been able to out- manoeuvre Sayoko, so Sayoko must have staged it, remembering that the cat would be at the school from the last cat hunt.

"Is that so… Thank you Sayoko." Sayoko smiled, "You're welcome, master Lelouch" before disappearing into the shadows once again.

Lelouch was tired, and glad to finally get some rest in his quarters. They were larger than what he expected, and sadly, designed by Clovis, the walls were a lavender purple, and there were white vases filled with yellow flowers everywhere. Lelouch had requested to take the vases out, but Clovis had denied, claiming that the room looked dreadful without them.

At least he had his own Kitchen area, so he could make himself breakfast in the morning. It was a little known fact that Lelouch loved to cook, so he was glad that he at least had the opportunity.

He was startled to find C.C. in his quarters waiting for him. She was lying, spread out, on his couch right in plain room from the door.

"Welcome back Lelouch, you have no idea how much trouble it was to get here, nor how long it took to find you. If it wasn't for that announcement, it may have taken another week."

"You know it's dangerous for you to be here." Lelouch growled, if C.C. was caught with Clovis still alive, Lelouch's geass on him wouldn't protect her from him.

"I'm surprised you aren't questioning how I'm alive. Don't you care?" Wait. What? Why would she… Maybe.

"Do you know what the Zero requiem is?" That question got a reaction out of her. Surprized confusion.

"No. I don't. What are you talking about?" It is as Lelouch thought, she hasn't retrieved her memories of the future yet. Lelouch question in his head if his second geass would even work on her, because of her code, but he remembered what the collective consciousness said about Jeremiah's geass canceller being unable to affect it. This geass was different, it ran by different rules, it should work.

But before Lelouch used in on her, an idea popped up in his head. Last time C.C. caused Lelouch a lot of trouble with his sister, making her believe that they were engaged, so he guessed now he could have a little payback.

"Then you don't need to know. You know, Clovis told me a lot about you C.C." Her eyes widened in horror at the idea that she had stepped into a trap.

"He told me all about your code and the immortality it grants you, so I'm not too surprized your alive." He continued on inwardly smirking. C.C. started searching for a way to escape, but the only way out was the door Lelouch was blocking and he knew it.

"So really, why did you come here, knowing that he could catch you again and continue his experiments on you?" Lelouch smirked, figuring he had finally done enough.

"Don't you **remember** all the times I have told you not to put yourself in danger like this?" C.C. was surprized by Lelouch's attempt to geass her, but didn't have the time to re-act before it activated. She blinked a few times before becoming cross.

"That was cruel Lelouch."

"Last time you would take trips to explore the campus at school, that can't happen this time, what just happened just proves my point. Clovis is still alive this time, and walks down these halls on a regular basis, he sleeps down the hallway, if he finds you, they will begin experimenting on you again. You do know that, right?"

C.C. just 'hmmft' and made her way to his room.

"Well, as you know already, gentlemen sleep on the floor." Before slamming the door to his room.

Lelouch knew he wouldn't be able to take this for another few years, he'd need to get her a room for herself. Of course he wouldn't be able to do that with Clovis around. 'Speaking' of Clovis, it would be too dangerous for C.C. to be here anyway with him still alive, even if she did stay put. Clovis was unpredictable in his own right, and he could possibly barge into Lelouch's room at any time to announce that the ceiling needs to be painted, well maybe not that extreme, but the possibility still remained that Clovis could come into Lelouch's room at any time. Lelouch also knew he wouldn't be able to get C.C. to leave.

There was only one remaining option. Clovis would need to be eliminated.

 **Sorry if the chapter was a little too long, but C.C. had been absent from the story for too long and that scene took longer than I expected.**


	7. Chapter 5: The game begins anew

**I'm alive! I'm really sorry for not updating sooner, I have exams coming up next week and I have been wallowing in fear and depression instead of studying to write.**

 **To make it up to you all, I** ** _intend_** **to post two chapters today, please note that if a wild parent appears, that may not be possible.**

 **So without any more delay, let's start the new chapter!**

Lelouch headed down the low ranking military housing, it was early morning so there were still solders wandering about. He was wearing his new uniform that Clovis designed for him- it was a black (thank goodness, Schneizel must have had a word with Clovis) version of the uniform Jeremiah had with silver lining and a completely black shoulder cloak with a dramatic neckpiece attached with a silver chain, Lelouch felt it was a little over the top, but after his Zero costume, he couldn't complain- so all the officers who saw him rushed to the walls at attention, bowing as he passed.

Lelouch internally enjoyed their response, but paid them no mind as he searched the line up for a particular soldier. Because he didn't kill Clovis this time, Suzaku had not been arrested, and as such, Lelouch did not get the opportunity to check on him until now.

Their eyes met in the furry of people and Suzaku just stood there in shock for a brief moment before the protocol that had been drilled into his head during his time in the military kicked in and he rushed to the side with the rest of the officers.

Lelouch made his way to Suzaku, studying his face, this was the old optimistic Suzaku, who while annoyingly idealistic, had a strong sense of honour and had yet to betray him. Lelouch had considered bringing back Suzaku's memories, but while this Suzaku didn't know anything, Lelouch could trust him, and if need be, manipulate him with ease.

"Private Kururugi." He addressed him, keeping up formalities for appearance sake.

"Yes! Your highness!" Suzaku, as expected, did the same, as ususual he had a stick up his ass.

"I wish to have a private audience with you."

"Yes, your highness!"

Lelouch left, Suzaku in tow, and easily found a private room. He opened the door and entered, allowing Suzaku to come in behind him, and closed the door.

"I'm glad to see you're alright." Lelouch smiled, all traces of formality gone. Suzaku hesitated, before realising that it _was_ Lelouch in front of him after all and grinned.

"Me too, I was worried when I awoke in medical, is that girl ok?" Lelouch's face dropped to a serious tone.

"Suzaku, I wouldn't mention her around the base, Clovis's men might still be after her, but yes I do believe she is fine."

Suzaku was shocked for a quick moment before recovering, a smile returning to his face.

"I never thought you'd return to the royal family."

"It was necessary, the only way to stop the fighting was to confront Clovis."

"Is, is Nunnally dead? " Lelouch shook his head and Suzaku looked relieved, he was about to say something in response, so Lelouch made a quick move to stop him from saying anything foolish, after all, he may know that there was no camera's in this room, but there was no way to be sure that there weren't listening ears.

"I, don't want to talk about it." Suzaku's eyes widened again, figuring out what was going on.

"I understand." It was then that Lelouch noticed the unfortunate time.

"I'm sorry Suzaku, but I have to go, I have arranged a meeting with some Nobles, and I'm afraid it will start in 15 minutes." Lelouch hurried out the room before Suzaku could respond.

The noblemen sat around the meeting room bragging about their various assets to each other as Lelouch waited for the last one to get themselves seated.

The room wasn't military grade, like he would prefer, it was more homey, and comfortable, with lounge chairs, bookshelves lining the walls and even a fire place.

"Now that Lord Parker is here I think we should begin."

"But what about Lord Gottwald and Lord Swine, didn't you invite them too?" One of the Nobles asked, not really caring, but more surprised.

"I'm afraid Lord Swine cancelled, and Lord Gottwald should be here any minute, there is no need to wait any further." They all glanced at each other, but none-the-less the all turned to Lelouch and gave him their full attention. Lelouch smirked as he activated his geass.

"Now then, **I command you all to be my slaves!** "

"Yes, your majesty!"

This really was too easy now that he was a prince again. He made a glance towards Jeremiah as he entered the room, and nodded towards him, this was just brilliant. He began to give out his commands to his new geass puppets as the second part of his plan played out for him elsewhere.

 **Meanwhile, elsewhere.**

Clovis was having a meeting of his own, but unlike Lelouch, it was just a viceroy meeting with his advisors. They were all interrupted from their conversation when Lord Swine barged in, holding a gun.

"Lord Swine! I thought you were meeting with my brother today?" Clovis said with a smile completely ignorant that he was holding a gun.

"I am, but then I realised that I should visit you first, after all, you were the one that brought the commoner prince abomination back into the royal family." Lord Swine replied, pointing his gun at Clovis, his eyes stony and with red rings around them.

"You dare! I will not tolerate such disrespect towards my brother." Red rings appearing around Clovis' own eyes.

 _BANG!_

"Too bad, well, I was going to kill you anyway, but I hoped you would at least see some sense." The entire room was in outrage, the advisors rushed to call security, when the officers rushed in, Lord Swine made a run for it, towards where the men realised Prince Lelouch was having his meeting.

The security ran after Lord Swine, but were blocked as the cleaning staff had just moved to clean the neighbouring rooms and their supplies were blocking their path. Lelouch had spent a good time memorising the palaces schedule, and had timed everything perfectly, the security would not be able to catch Lord Swine until he got to the meeting room.

Lelouch had just finished giving out his orders when Lord Swine arrived and pointed his gun towards Lelouch, his loud entry had brought the attention of everyone in the halls as they all observed with frightened caution.

"You should have stayed dead mongrel."

 _BANG! BANG!_

Two shots rang as Lord Swine collapsed to the floor dead.

"Your highness! Are you alright?" Asked Jeremiah, his gun still out.

"I'm fine Lord Gottwald, merely shocked. You have my gratitude you just saved my life." Not really, as Lord Swine shooting Lelouch was never part of the plan, but the gratitude was still there, as now, Lelouch's plan had succeeded.

With Clovis dead, his alliance with C.C. was safe, and things would begin rolling again. Lord Swine's involvement had ensured that it was impossible for him or his allies to be given blame, and the way Lelouch had him act would make it look like Lelouch was in danger, which would be his backup plan (excuse) if Nunnally was discovered, and also an excellent excuse for him to appoint himself a knight, because Jeremiah was the one to take down Lord Swine, 'saving Lelouch's life', there would be no questions asked on why Lelouch would choose to appoint him.

Everything was going perfectly.

 **That's that for this chapter, and I must send my gratitude to the guest 'KK', as I took inspiration from your advice.**


	8. Chapter 6: New peices

**This is the SECOND new chapter for today, just in case you just clicked on the '' button.**

 **:)**

Cornelia became area 11's Viceroy a week ago.

Things happened much quicker than last time, it was quite obvious who killed Clovis this time, and Zero had no reason to make an appearance either. The funeral was over the top, like last time, but Lelouch kept a strong mask on, so no-one saw his disgust.

Schneizel had video called again, expressing concern for his little brother, showing no signs of suspicion towards Lelouch, as was expected, Lord Swine had 'attempted' to kill Lelouch as well.

Jeremiah was knighted without a ceremony, as it wasn't a necessary process, but rather just a celebratory event. Jeremiah had transferred his desk to the secretary's office outside Lelouch's office. It was not really a secretary's office, as Lelouch had dismissed his secretary to a different area.

The room was actually quite large, it had three vacant desks, plus Jeremiah's, which lined the two side walls and the fourth wall, which was the only entry, was made out of bullet proof glass, with the exception of its steel door.

Well the three desks were supposed to be vacant, which was why Lelouch was so shocked to see a little girl typing at her computer at the front right desk, furthest away from Jeremiah's.

Lelouch was entering his office when he noticed the girl, she didn't even bother looking up from her computer as he closed the door, eyes never leaving her computer screen.

"How did you get in the building?" Maybe she had a parent or guardian that he could send her to.

"I'm I.T." She replied, not taking her eyes of the screen to notice who she was talking to. That didn't seem realistic, Lelouch could guess that she looked barely 9 years old, there was no way that Lelouch could see Britannia hiring a kid.

"How old are you?"

"I'm 14." _Nunnally's age._ Still, that wasn't old enough either. The was a pause of silence.

"… My guardian has a high rank in the military, I have to travel with him and live in the base. I have a hacking addiction, but they can't get me in trouble. It ended up easier for them to just enrol me into the security team, I test the security." That made more sense, if her guardian or whatever had a high rank in the military, it was likely that he was a high ranking Noble, or at least had deep connections with high ranking Nobles, and it wouldn't exactly be desirable to get on said guardian's bad side by trying to get their kid into trouble.

"Then why are you here?"

"They haven't assigned me a desk yet, so I just picked a quiet room to work." (A/N: Please tell me you get this reference, because you probably won't) As the mystery of the girl disappeared, her attitude was starting to get annoying, it was like another, younger, version of C.C., still, it was interesting that he hadn't heard of her, to even be considered a nuisance enough for Britannia to take the actions they have she must have been a prodigy, it was strange that even though he had been through the game before, there were still new untouched pieces that he had never heard about before.

"Good morning, your highness." Jeremiah greeted as he entered the room, raising an eyebrow at the girl, to which Lelouch shrugged.

"You're a prince?" The girl looked up from her computer for the first time, looking him over, before turning back to her computer. "Cool."

Jeremiah, surprisingly, didn't seem too surprised by her antics, but rather, annoyed. He must have had to deal with her before, Lelouch realised, as the girl's guardian most likely transferred with Cornelia, Lelouch decided to ask about her later, after all, it was best to know as much about the board as he could.

Once again, the door to the office opened, this time Cornelia, and her knight Guildford, entered. That was another annoyance, Lelouch had yet to be able to be in a room alone with Cornelia, she always had Guildford, or another member of her guard with her.

"Good morning Cornelia. Good morning Uncle Gilbert." The girl had looked up from her computer, and had directed her attention towards the two. Uncle Gilbert? It made sense, when it came to rank and connections mentioned earlier, Guildford had both. Cornelia nodded in response to the girl, however Guildford narrowed his eyes.

"Abbigail, what are you doing here?"

"I haven't been assigned a desk yet, so I found a quiet office."

"You shouldn't be here; this is prince Lelouch's office. You should know by now to be respectful and keep out of area's that you haven't been given permission to enter." Guildford was surprisingly harsh, however, the girl, Abbigail, barely reacted.

"I apologise for her, prince Lelouch, she is still too immature to realise how disrespectful she is."

"It's alright, if my little sister were alive, she would be about her age." Abbigail looked at Lelouch for a moment with shocked eyes before returning her gaze to Guildford.

"See, the prince says its ok."

"Still, its disrespectful and you should know-"

"Isn't it _disrespectful_ , to ignore that he said it was alright." She interrupted, returning back to her bored voice, before turning back to her computer.

Guildford stared for a brief moment before realising that their argument had interrupted Cornelia's visit.

"My apologies princess, for my interruption."

"Apology accepted, I'm quite used to your niece's antics by now." Guildford looked relieved, but averted his eyes in shame.

"Now that we're back on topic, I am here to inform you Lelouch that you will be receive a new lieutenant in a few days." She passed a file to him, revealing a picture of an old man.

"Hawkins may be blind, but he is observant, efficient and dedicated, he will be sure to be some relief to the workload you have been getting." Blind?! This might become an issue, Lelouch geass required eyesight, he knew he could potentially use it on Nunnally to get her sight back, but that was only because there had been no physical damage to her eyes, but this man's eyes had been damaged by a flash bomb according to the file.

"Why do I need a lieutenant? I believe I have been getting all the work done fine." Cornelia's eyes softened.

"Lelouch, I am doing this as a favour for you. You have too much stress for a boy your age, to add to attempt on your life you haven't had any leisure time. Euphie is worried about you; you have been too busy to speak to her since she got here." That, he hadn't spoken to Euphie, but it wasn't so much the workload, but the guilt he felt looking at her. He was a coward, but every time he looked at her smile he saw the same smile she had during the SAZ massacre, it hurt to talk to her. It was nice though, that Cornelia cared, even if it were for Euphie's sake.

"Plus, you're still too skinny." She added bluntly, to which Lelouch scowled, she then smirked and left, Guildford in tow.

A moment passed as he watched he close the door, until his attention was drawn to Abbigail packing up her computer.

"I'm sorry for the trouble, I will be leaving now." After all that, she was just going to leave?

"What was that about?" He questioned. She looked at him confused, before realisation filled her face.

"That's right, you're new to the fold. My Uncle hasn't spoken to me since we got here, so I hacked into Cornelia's schedule to find out where they'd be visiting today so I could bid him good morning." And with that, she just left.

 **I know, I know, OCs, but I have to find some way to make things relatively new, or else Lelouch would just spend the entire time pwning Britannia.**


	9. Chapter 7: No two games are the same

**Hello all, here I am writing instead of studying again… I needed a break anyway.**

 **First of all, the guest KK is a genius, who actually suggested something that I intended to reveal in this chapter. Also KK, you are very close to what I intend to do with the blind lieutenant, very, very, close. As with your idea of making Abbigail friends with Euphie, I had not thought of that, but it solves a problem I have been having to do with the thing you guessed about Cornelia.**

It had almost been a month since Lelouch had come back in time and he was beginning to get restless. With his new lieutenant, who was always silently working in the secretary's office, it had become extremely difficult to manipulate the military in a way that he needed to kick start his rebellion, not that there were many opportunities to do so in the first place. It became almost immediately obvious that Hawkins was intelligent, and in no way was Cornelia exaggerating when she said he was observant.

He had made three attempts to position the military in ways that would weaken it without it being obvious, however each time Hawkins had noticed the flaws in the formations he had set up and pointed them out, each time calmly and slowly as he was pointing out the mistakes in a kid's math homework.

It was infuriating, which is why he had to take special care into keeping a mask of calm during the Viceroy's meeting. Cornelia and her guard were all lined up on one edge of the table, strangely Cornelia was having Euphie watch, standing behind her. On his side of the table, he was outnumbered, only having Jeremiah and Hawkins on his side of the table. Right now they were discussing who could be potentially be in league with Swine.

"I agree Daltron, while they are an important and powerful group, we may have to disband the purist faction, their ideals are just too similar to the ones that lead Swine to murder Clovis and make an attempt on Lelouch." Cornelia said, eyeing Jeremiah, as if testing his reaction.

Jeremiah made no such reaction, "I agree with you completely, Viceroy." Jeremiah now hated the purist faction, knowing that it's ideals to be completely false after seeing Suzaku and Sayako in action, the only reason he hadn't resigned yet was in case his position would become beneficial to his Lord, he would be glad to see it go.

Cornelia smiled, that seemed to be the answer she wanted. She glanced once more over the large computer screen.

"With the purist faction gone, I see no other threats. After that is complete I can take my leave."

"Leave?!" Lelouch responded a little too loudly, he had believed Cornelia's transfer was supposed to be permanent. Why wasn't he informed?

"Yes, that's right, after everything here is settled, I will be transferring Area 11 to Euphemia, I will be trusting you too keep an eye on her for me."

It was becoming exceedingly obvious to Lelouch that as more time when by, his future knowledge of events was becoming less and less valuable. He supposed that it was realistic, after all, no two games of chess are the same.

Cornelia was right about having less paperwork with a lieutenant to share the load with, however, he was now stumped on what to do with his time. He decided that it would be best to wait for an opportunity to arise to start his rebellion, creating his own was too risky around Hawkins.

He had decided to head to the engineering corps to visit Suzaku, Jeremiah following him dutifully. It was on the way there that the two bumped into Euphie, who was tightly holding onto the wrist of the much shorter Abbigail, whose eyes were wide in a state of shock.

Lelouch just had to ask what had happened, which lead to Euphie telling Lelouch how she and the girl met in an overly excited manor. It took some figuring out, but from what Lelouch could tell, Abbigail had made the mistake of sneaking into Euphie's Sub-Viceroy's office in an attempt to force another meeting between her uncle and herself. And in the same matter that she spoken to Lelouch before, she had spoken to Euphie, which had made Euphie happy because she wanted someone to talk to that would treat her like a regular person. Which possessed Euphie into introducing Abbigail as her friend to Cornelia when she did finally enter Euphie's office, to which Cornelia stated her approval –probably because from what he could guess, the two would meet quite often- and now Euphie was making Abbigail wonder the palace with her.

Lelouch chuckled at the Abbigail's predicament, the girl did disserve it after all.

"Euphie, doesn't Abbigail have a job to do?" He made a small attempt to help the girl escape.

"Huh," Euphie blinked, surprised by the sudden question. "not really, I asked Cornelia and it turns out she works casually anyway." That made sense, IT had no reason to have set hours anyway.

"Well, I wouldn't get too attached to Abbigail, Cornelia is leaving area 11 soon, and Abbigail will have to leave with Guildford." Euphie's eyes widened.

"No! I'm going to talk to Cornelia and Guildford, maybe I can convince them to let Abbie stay." Then Euphie hastily left in another direction, tugging Abbigail along with her, who sent a glare in Lelouch's direction.

Lelouch watched Suzaku chat with Cecile with a slight smile. Watching Suzaku be so care free was endearing, and he felt another pang of guilt for ruining his life. No. That Suzaku did not disserve his guilt, not after he betray Nunnally and him.

Lelouch's face had become a deep frown at the memory, which must of concerned Jeremiah.

"My Lord, are you alright?"

Lelouch ceased his frown and turned to his knight.

"Just remembering." Jeremiah understood, nodding.

"He did change quite a lot, this Suzaku holds onto his loyalty, when the Suzaku I last met tossed it all away in his desire for vengeance." Jeremiah held a great distaste towards Suzaku after he had heard of the misdeeds he had not only done to his Lord, but to someone Suzaku had once been loyal to. Jeremiah never forgave Suzaku for what he did in the old timeline, even during the year there that his Lord was dead. He respected his Lord's wishes and allowed Suzaku to hold onto the title of Zero -in his opinion the boy did not disserve his masters old title-, but that was all.

"Suzaku!" Suzaku turned his head and smiled when he saw Lelouch, excusing himself and heading down to speak with his old friend.

"Hey Le-, welcome, Prince Lelouch." He said, taking notice of Jeremiah's strangely hostile presence. Lelouch chuckled.

"No need for that, Jeremiah knows that we're old friends." Lelouch reassured, unaware of the anger Jeremiah was sending towards Suzaku.

"Is that so, why didn't you tell me that you were acquainted with the prince?" Lloyd's head popped out from above, who had obviously listening in on the conversation.

"A-ah well…"

"Hello Lloyd." Jeremiah may not like Suzaku, but Lloyd had been eavesdropping on his Lord's conversation, which he would not allow.

"Oh, didn't notice you~ there Gottwald." Lloyd replied, trying to withhold the pressure of Jeremiah's gaze.

"Jeremiah, it's alright, he didn't listen in on anything dangerous. I may need to speak to him anyway. Suzaku I am here because I found out you haven't been going to school, so I am enrolling to a school call Ashford Academy, I know a few people that go there." Suzaku's eyes widened in recognition.

"Well, it will have to be ok with my superiors." Suzaku pointed out. To which Lloyd immediately replied, "Well if it's the princes wishes, I can't refuse." Hoping that it would diminish Jeremiah's gaze at all.

"Well now that's out of the way, Lloyd, can I talk to Suzaku for a bit."

"Sure, sure, take as long as you'd like." Lloyd would be just glad to get some distance between himself and Jeremiah.

Lelouch made his daily check on the internet to search for any articles about Nunnally. Strangely, in the past two weeks since he was revealed, he hadn't found anything, which was concerning.

He believed that this search would be the same as the others he had made until he saw the title " _Royal sibling conspiracy!_ " and clicked it hastily, his eyes widened when he saw pictures of Nunnally at Ashford and the article making claims that student's had seen Prince Lelouch with Nunnally and claims revealing that they were siblings.

Just before Lelouch could have a heart attack though, the page went blank, confused, he clicked the refresh button, reloading the page only to receive the message "Error 404; the page you are looking for no longer exists".

Why would the website take it down? No, they wouldn't, the website must have been hacked. By who? He knew for a fact that most terrorist groups didn't have hackers capable of this. It couldn't have been someone outside of Area 11, as the website was Area 11 specific. That left the military, but that didn't make sense, the military wouldn't take down the site unless they believed that the information was true, and he had seen no signs of trouble, and it was incredibly likely that the one who took down this site must have done so to several others in the past two weeks, which meant that the one who did must have their own agenda.

That lead to a small list of people who would be capable of taking down the site single handed, and he prayed that it was the one he was thinking of.

 **I am really mad at myself for A) not writing as often as I want to and B) not starting the Black Knight's yet, I really want to, but there is a serious lack of opportunities without the Orange incident, so I will have to find another way for Zero to be born.**

 **But anyway, my Exams start next week so wish me luck and I hope I can find the time to write, if not, I apologies.**


	10. Chapter 8 Loose ends

**YAY my exams are officially over today! I'm really sorry I didn't write during them, but the math exams were brutal and there was just so much to focus on. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the others, my brain is pretty much drained.**

 **On another note, this story has reached 10'000 views! Shit, I did not expect this. Thank you all for your support, I really appreciate it.**

Lelouch rushed through the hallways, eyes searching the non-stop flow of people in the palaces walls. People looked at him confused as he charged through the halls, but none-the-less made an effort to get out of his way.

Lelouch had made a good guess that they weren't at their office- if they had an office yet, so he had opted to searching all the halls without discrimination. He made a small skid at a corner in the hall to be relieved to spot Abigail exiting what looked like an office room.

Lelouch headed towards her in a controlled and authoritative manor as possible, despite being in a complete state of panic behind his mask. What if it wasn't her? What was he going to do with her anyway? If worst came to worst, he could always use his geass on her.

Lelouch grabbed Abigail's shoulder, "Was it you?", for a moment Abigail looked confused, before her eyes momentarily widened and she tilted her head.

"You're going have to be more specific, what do you think I did? It might be better if we talk in my office, I'd rather not receive a lecture in the hallway." Lelouch once again made aware of the people watching nodded and followed the girl into her office, Abbigail closing the door behind him.

"Don't worry, I have made checks and I'm certain that this room is cleared of bugs. I'm guessing that you were the 27th reader right, that makes things easier." Lelouch raised an eyebrow.

"27th?" Abbigail sighed.

"I took down a webpage about 15 minutes ago, said webpage had only had 27 IP addresses that had viewed it, of those 27, one had a military address, was that you?"

So, Abigail _was_ the one who took down the website, and from what she just said, no one else in the military got to it either.

"That's right." Lelouch allowed her to continue to explain herself.

"You don't need to worry about the articles writer, not only did I give their computer a nasty virus, I blacklisted them from all the other media websites and flagged their permanent record, no-one will be willing to listen to what they have to say, I did the same to all the other writers for the articles I have found." That certainly made things for Lelouch a whole lot easier, but still, something was eating at him.

"Why are you doing this? What interest do you have in hiding information about Nunnally?"

Abbigail's usual look of disinterest changed into an almost unreadable expression of concern.

"If Nunnally is brought back into the royal family she'll be in danger, won't she?" Lelouch couldn't say that was one of the reasons he suspected. "If an attempt on your life wasn't enough to go by, I did some research on you, I even hacked a few sources, and I found out about you're mum. There are a lot of people who would want to hurt you two because of her. I can really respect that you would keep her out of the fold rather than just dragging her in with you." Lelouch could tell that her answer was deeper than that but he decided that was an acceptable response.

"What made you go looking in the first place? What gave me away?" This was important, Lelouch did not think that he had made a mistake, but for Abbigail to get this curious, there had to be a hole in his mask.

"When you said your sister would be my age without even hesitating, when she should have died 5 years ago, that didn't feel right. When I was little, my parents and big brother died and I know firsthand that your memory of those who have died doesn't change. There was no way you would draw that line between us if she had died back then." Abbigail replied, eyes averting Lelouch's. So there wasn't a hole in his mask, but rather a small a small mistake that others usually wouldn't pick up on.

Now that Lelouch was done questioning her, now came the question of what to do with her. He could easily just use his geass to force her to continue what she was doing without telling others, but considering that she would likely do that anyway, it seemed like a waste. The girl seemed manipulatable enough, and Lelouch had controlled people easily enough without geass before, remembering Rolo.

"You're going to stay behind in Area 11 with Euphie after Cornelia leaves tomorrow, aren't you?" Annoyance clearly appeared on her face and glared at the Prince.

"Yea, don't think that I have forgiven you for that stunt you pulled."

"Then I am going to move your office to my 'receptionist's' office so if anything important surrounding Nunnally happens, you can inform me as soon as possible." Plus, keeping the girl at close distance would mean that he would be able to manipulate her better.

"How do you hope to cover that up, it's kinda going to be obvious that somethings going on? How are you even going to find an excuse for this private meeting?"

"That's easy, with your bad reputation for trouble and your uncle out of area 11, I can say that I have moved you to keep a closer eye on you, as for this meeting, with Euphie's attitude, by now, everyone in the Viceroy's palace knows that you're her friend, and I am simply being the overprotective big brother I am by threatening you not to hurt my little sister."

"You don't need to worry about me doing anything, with my Uncle out of the area." Abbigail mumble in a small voice.

"Don't tell me that you hacked into the Brittannian Military only to get your Uncle's attention." Lelouch commented with an eyebrow raised.

"My Uncle gives all his attention to his job, he doesn't even bother with sending me to school or hiring me a tutor, it's really annoying. Still being stuck in an office with two high ranking officers, that' going to be _fun_. Abbigail changed the subject sarcastically, to which Lelouch raised an eyebrow.

"Because of the special treatment Cornelia gives me, it's easy to say most high ranking officers hate me, not to mention everyone else." That would do it.

"I doubt Jeremiah would be too disrespectful, but if he does I will talk to him."

"This is the Jeremiah Gottwald we're talking about, known for his stubbornness, how loyal to you is he?" This made Lelouch chuckle.

"You have no idea… You said you hacked into some high security files to get information about me, would you be able to do the same for Lieutenant Hawkins"

"Of course, but why would you want me to do that?"

 **I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but with my brain completely fried, this somehow took two and a half hours to write.**


	11. Chapter 9: The resistance begins again

**Hi again! I am really sorry for not writing sooner, I am struggling to get back into the habit of writing, and my school is not kind when it comes to post-exam homework.**

 **I hope this is not going too slow, there is a surprising amount of setup needed to get thing rolling, so please bear with me.**

The peace in the receptionist's office was disturbed almost immediately after Lelouch had finally created it. Abbigail was accurate when she said that things weren't going to be fun when she entered the shared office. Both nobles had a large amount of distain towards Abbigail, as she had managed the hack them both in the past –something she had not mentioned- Jeremiah was an easy fix, but lieutenant Hawkins stubbornly refused to let the arrangement be, making accusations that she was a security risk in which she just had to respond-

 _"_ _You don't have to worry about that, know that my Uncle is outside of Area 11, it is going to take something a lot worse than hacking the likes of you to get his attention_ "

\- which had only made things a whole lot worse. Lelouch had to resort to ordering both of them to remain civil, which had created a kind of peace, with Hawkins resorting to giving Abbigail 'tips' on how to do her job without breaking protocol and she ignoring anything he said in general. It had taken weeks to create and it wasn't ideal, but a level of peace was achieved.

Too bad no more than an hour later it was disturbed when Euphie had decided to make a visit to the office.

"Hello Lulu! I thought I would check on you. You have been working so hard since Nelly left that you haven't even had the time to talk me at all. Are you alright?" Euphemia asked, concern all over her face. There was no use telling her to follow protocol, Lelouch knew that would upset her, and after what happened in the previous timeline, he couldn't get himself to upset her in any way.

"I'm fine Euphie. I admit that I am having trouble working up the courage to talk to you, it's been so long, I'm not too sure what to say." It wasn't really a lie; he didn't know what to say. He didn't disserve to talk to her.

Euphie gave an encouraging smile- Lelouch flinched, remembering once again the smile of the massacre princess- and had a small giggle.

"It's alright Lelouch, you can talk about whatever you want." She paused, glancing at Abbigail, who was typing away praying she wouldn't get noticed, Abbigail seemed to sense Euphie's eyes, flinching and stopping her typing.

"And what's with you stealing Abbigail from me? With both you and her working I have no-one to talk to… That it, I'm taking her to Lake Kawaguchi with me." Lelouch's eyes widened in recognition.

"Lake Kawaguchi?" That was where the Student Council had been taken hostage before.

"That's right, there is going to be the Annual Sakuradite Conference next week so my advisors said that it would be alright to spend the weekend off there with the extra security." Annual conference… that was when the JLF attacked last time. It was said that it was the appearance of Zero that led them to take action, but the fact remained that it was advertised that valuable hostages would be there during the time and the JLF could choose to attack again. This could be the event that he has been waiting for to kick-start the Black Knights. He would need to make a phone call.

"What's Sakuradite?" Abbigail interrupted his train of thought. Was she serious, Sakuradite was Britannia's main fuel source, how could she not know what it was? Abbigail felt everyone's stares on her. "I have never been to school, what do you expect? My range of knowledge doesn't go much beyond computers." Abbigail made an attempt to defend herself.

Kallen, and Ohgi warily entered the building that they were summoned to by the mysterious voice from before.

It had been so long since they had last communicated that they barely believed that they were the same person, but it was impossible deny that they recognised he mentioned 'Q1'.

The building was not what they had expected, during Shinjuku they suspected that he was a member of the JLF, so when he summoned them they expected to find the JLF's base of operations, but instead it was a completely empty building, void of furniture or people of any kind. Even more surprisingly, it appeared to be completely new, just ready for development, but there was no sign that anything of the kind would happen any time soon.

They climbed the eerily quiet staircases to the top of the building. They realised that the room at the top was different, it had black curtains, covering all the windows and blocking all light from coming in. In the centre of the room, there stood a single figure, with a strange mask on.

"You came." A distorted voice echoed through-out the room. The resistance fighters looked at each other, was this the voice from before? "I am glad to see that you are alright, Q1." At the code name, they dropped their guard a little.

"It's really you, Zero, it had been so long, we weren't sure what to expect." Ohgi spoke up.

"My true identity has been closely watched lately, and as such, it has been difficult to get back in contact with you." Zero explained.

"Is it true that you are with the JLF?" Ohgi asked, curious.

"No, I am not with the JLF, I am completely independent from any of the other resistance groups as well, however, I intend to start my own group, starting with you."

"And how are we supposed to trust you? You haven't even shown us your face?" Kallen questioned.

Lelouch, behind the mask of the Zero costume, took a deep breath in, trying to prepare himself for what he was about to do. Jeremiah had assured him that after Nunnally had revealed the truth behind the Zero requiem, that the core members of the had felt sympathetic towards him, however, revealing himself was still unnerving to say the least, as he would have no way of telling how they would react, and his geass would not work on Kallen if he needed it.

"Because, Q1, Ohgi, don't you **remember** this from before? You know my answer."

The two stepped back in surprise, as Lelouch's second geass activated on them.

"Master Zero?!"

"Zero?!"

The two replied in shock, as Lelouch took off his mask, but the two did not look at him with disgust and anger like they had done before, but with the guilt that Jeremiah had mentioned before.

"I have some explaining to do, don't I?" he said with an awkward smile.


	12. Chapter 10: Old friends and New enemies

**Thank you for all your support!**

 **After re-reading some parts of my story, I have noticed some typos, so I am making an attempt to fix them.**

Lelouch tried to explain everything to the two the best he could; what little he knew about the world of C, about his father's geass and eventual code, what he knew about code itself, his parents dreaded plan, and how he stopped it, the debt that the collective conscious owed him because of it, and how that debt led to where they were now. Lelouch wanted to be honest with them this time, after what happened before, he knew that was his best shot. Besides, he felt a little guilty for not telling them about his geass –specifically Ohgi who didn't hear about geass before Villetta explained it to him. After the Black Knight's betrayal, there was a lot of bad blood between them, and for things to work, he needed to fix things, even if he couldn't say that he had completely forgiven Ohgi. The whole time Lelouch tried to explain to their guilty faces, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, and exposed, he realised how used to fooling them he was.

"To think that there was so much more going on that we didn't know, we really did act without knowing the full story, and to add to that what Empress Nunnally told us about the Zero requiem… Zero, I feel horrible." Ohgi looked incredibly ashamed, which made Lelouch feel a little more comfortable, just glad that they still didn't hate him.

Kallen, however, wasn't so calm. _SLAP!_

"Why didn't you just tell me about all this, idiot! What made you so arrogant that you thought you could deal with everything alone! You're just an arrogant idiot!" Despite himself, Lelouch couldn't stop himself from chuckling.

"What are you laughing at, bastard!" Lelouch tried to stop his laughter, but his voice still held a slight bit of amusement.

"Sorry, it's just, I missed you Kallen." He really did. Kallen was one of the few people that he could talk to during the old timeline, and one of the few people that would set him straight when he needed it.

"What… well… You could have just let me help you back then! If you didn't lie to be, I would have defended you if it cost me my life!" Kallen shouted in frustration.

"Then you would be dead. They would have thought you were under geass and shot you, then myself, and what would have been the point of that." Of the many things he did wrong, lying to Kallen back then was not one of them.

"H-he's right Kallen, we really did think that you might have been under the effects of geass." Ohgi tried to calm her down, and she did somewhat.

"Fine. Well, what are you planning now, you've set yourself back inside the royal family and you've called us here. You must be planning something." Kallen's voice was blunt, if not slightly annoyed. Lelouch took a deep breath in, he did not plan to explain his intensions to them so quickly, he had hoped to steady them in, but now, there was no point.

"I am planning on redoing the rebellion, this time the right way. I called you two hear because I believe next week will be the Lake Kawaguchi incident again, it will be our be the best chance that we have in this timeline to start up the Black Knights. If you're willing to join me in my rebellion again, I would like you're support."

"Of course!" Ohgi replied immediately, wanting to clear his guilty conscience. Kallen however hesitated.

"I will on one condition. Promise that you will be honest with us, you can lie to the rest of the Black Knights, but with the ones you bring back, you tell nothing but the truth."

"Of course." Lelouch had no problems with this, anyone he brought back would already know anything that he was trying to hide last time.

"Then I'm in. But, how are you going to make this work, as head of the military now, you will be the one dealing with the hostage situation, and what about getting in, the Black Nights don't have any fame this time to draw Kusakabe's attention? We really don't have much to go on."

"Well, it going to be risky but, here's the plan..."

Lelouch walked back into his office, noticing a certain green haired woman working at one of the desks. "And who are you?" He asked, feigning ignorance as the woman glared at him, it was Jeremiah who responded.

"She is you're new personal secretary, Miss Cecilia Clarke." Jeremiah handed him a file containing C.C.'s newly created identity that Lelouch had Jeremiah create for him, seeing everything was in order, he nodded in thanks towards Jeremiah.

"Very well, everything seems to be in order." Lelouch hid his smirk as C.C. continued to glare at him, angry that he was forcing her to take this job. To hide his smirk he had glanced at his watch to notice that it was well past 4pm, he made a side glance at Abbigail who was typing away at her computer, as she had been doing since 5am this morning, before making a comment.

"You can't hide here forever; I'm going to be the one that gets in trouble if Euphemia finds out that you have been here all day." Abbigail just continued her typing.

"Euphie is just going to be more overexcited to talk to you if she rarely gets to see you." She stopped typing.

"It's not that… It's just, I've never had a friend before, never really wanted one… I just don't know what I'm supposed to do or how to act."

"I see, so not only are you an insufferable, entitled brat, but you're completely useless when it comes to anything but that computer of yours." Hawkins crowed, making Abbigail's left eye twitch. Then Abbigail blinked, as if remembering something, grabbing her computer.

"I have that report you asked for earlier." _Already?_ Lelouch nodded before bringing her into his personal office, signalling to Jeremiah so that he would follow.

Abbigail had already set her computer down and had opened countless files by the time Jeremiah had closed the door behind him.

"You did all this in just a few weeks?" Lelouch asked uncertain, not quite believing it to be possible, from what he could see, a lot of these documents had a high rank security code. Abbigail just nodded.

"I had more motivation than usual, with Hawkins bugging me all the time. I'm pretty sure that you were right Lelouch, Hawkins has a pretty sketchy background, he could very likely be part of one of those extremist groups you mentioned before." To get her to look into Hawkins' background, Lelouch had told Abbigail that he suspected that Hawkins might be part of the same group that Swine was in, obvious bullshit, but it was better than the truth.

"Sketchy in what way?" Lelouch asked, he was hoping to get some sort of dirt to blackmail Hawkins with, but it seems that Abbigail found something more valuable.

"It seems that he is, or at least was, part of some kind of cult, information about the cult itself I couldn't get into, but I did find a profile, I think the cult's called the 'Geass Order' or something, yep, here it is." Abbigail opened up a file that was a profile with a picture of Hawkins, but under a different name, Blake, with the geass symbol at the top.


	13. Chapter 11: Black Knights begin anew

**Once again, I am so sorry, this week I have been sick and while I could have tried to write, what I wrote would not have made much sense, and considering the complexity of this chapter (compared to my normal works), it would not have been a good mix.**

 **Thanks again for all your support!**

"And here is the live footage of the Lake Kawaguchi hostage situation." The news reporter presented before continuing on to explain the situation. The footage clearly showed the student council, including Milly, Shirley and Nina who were huddled together on the floor, Milly was watching Nina with concern as just like last time the girl was in a state of panic, holding herself in a fetal position, shaking in fear with her eyes inhumanly wide. Shirley also looked concerned, but for a different reason.

"Where's Sayako? I can't see her pres."

"Shhh! Be quiet Shirley, you don't want to anger the terrorists." Milly cautioned, although she also made a short attempt to search the hostages.

It could be seen that once again Euphemia had been caught in the hostage situation in her disguise, she was crouching down holding Abigail tightly, who was in a similar condition to Nina, shaking in fear.

Lelouch, watching the broadcast made a small smirk, 'It seems that at the air of conflict she loses her delicate mask, I'd say it was pathetic, but I'm reminded that she _is_ 14 after all.'

Lelouch tuned out of the broadcast and started focusing on completing his preparations.

"Your highness, what should we do?"

"I'm working on it general, this is a delicate situation, with the Viceroy inside we need to be careful not to endanger the hostages."

"But, your highness, shouldn't you at least come outside of your knightmare to discuss the situation?"

"You fool! We can't risk highnesses position! If the terrorists discover that he is here, they will undoubtedly make a cowardly attempt on his life!" Jeremiah barked over the radio, shutting down any further comments on the matter.

All matters complete on that end, Lelouch put down his radio and put his Zero mask back on and re-joined his old-new recruits, when he had entered his private room, they had all been looking around their new base, but now they were all surrounding the television watching the hostage situation intently, with a hint of conflict their eyes.

"Cowardly isn't it." Lelouch as Zero commented making his presence known.

"What!?" Tamaki questioned, the idiot that he is.

"Our enemy is the military and Britannia itself, by taking innocent civilians hostage the JLF is not only showing us how cowardly they are, but are reinforcing the negative image placed on the Japanese people. No, lowly acts of terrorism such as this will never further the Japanese agenda but will only cause greater hatred towards the people. Our fight is with the military and it should stay with the military." It was strange, but he and Suzaku could at least agree on that much.

"Then what do you think we should do about it Zero?" Asked Ohgi, knowing where Zero was going.

"We need to prove that we do not support their actions, and the best way to do so would be stop this horrendous act and free the hostages."

"Stop it!?" Tamaki asked wide eyed, surprised.

"How do you plan to even get in there? You are going to have to get past the imperator and get inside?" another recruit asked.

Zero chuckled, "I have my ways."

"I'm in." Kallen said firmly, surprising everyone.

"Me too." Ohgi jumped in, causing further shock, Tamaki looked at the two jaw dropped, glancing from person to person, before sighing.

"Then I guess I'm in too." Then soon enough, everyone was in for the job.

Kusakabe stood no chance against Sayoko. He didn't even see her coming. One minute he was minding his own business, discussing the usual terrorist things with his followers, the next he had a knife to his throat and was her human shield.

It wasn't fair. What could he have done to deserve this?

Now was the time for Zero to convince his alter ego to let him into the hostage situation. He had made the same entry as before, stealing a news van to get past most of the security- crazy reporters were the least of the militaries problems, and now he had confronted with himself, who was 'inside his knightmare with his knight Jeremiah Gottwald aiming his knightmare's gun at him threateningly, of course, with Jeremiah knowing Zero's true identity, such a threat was just for show.

"Why shouldn't I just have my knight shoot you where you stand?" He projected through his knightmare's speakers.

"Because I have the ability to do what you cannot. It is within my power to save the hostages. VIPs included." He responded as Zero, hinting about Euphemia's presence. He paused for time for 'Prince Lelouch' to consider.

"Fine, but next time we meet, I swear that next time I will have you answer to me."

It was now time for Sayako to play her part, as now the men guarding the entry were questioning Kusakabe on what to do next.

 **(Meanwhile with Kusakabe)**

Kusakabe narrowed his eyes, and made a move automatically to deny this newcomer, only to be reminded of his situation with a knife pressing against his throat. He looked to his captor in fear as she nodded.

"Let them through! Don't give them any trouble what-so-ever!" He replied urgently hoping to satisfy his captor, sighing in relief when the pressure on his neck ceased.

When Zero entered the building with his 'new' knights for justice the first thing he did was give them the signal to start freeing the hostages, with the instructions that he had given them, subduing Kusakabe's followers should be without difficulty.

After checking that particular hostages were unharmed, noting Euphie had once again sacrificed herself for the hostages, as Abigail was now alone, he moved quickly to meet up with Kusakabe.

Luckily, he had managed to reach Kusakabe before Euphie did.

Upon seeing Sayoko, he wasted no time in giving her, her next orders, not sure how long it would be until Euphie got here.

"Good work Sayoko, move on to plan beta." She nodded before once again disappearing into the shadows.

Lelouch looked at the bewildered, pitiful mean that were before him. He knew from last time he spoke with them that they were more than hopeless, and as such, he didn't wish to waste any more time on them.

 **"** **Die!"**

Euphemia was troubled as she was escorted to Kusakabe, who were these people that had convinced her brother to let them through? Why would he trust them to do what they said they would?

Her train off thought was cut off when two kunai appeared from the shadows and cut into her escort, causing them two collapse onto the floor in pain.

Then a disguised woman in a strange outfit grabbed her by the arm and turned her around.

"This way, princess."

Once again, the Black Knights appeared in the boats with the hostages after the hotel exploded.

"People! Fear us, or rally behind us as you see fit. I am Zero, and… We are the Black Knights. We of the Black Knights stand with those who have no weapons to wield; regardless of whether they be Elevens or Britannians. The Japan Liberation Front cowardly took innocent Britannian civilians hostage, and then mercilessly executed them. It was a wanton and meaningless act, therefore they have been punished. I will not repudiate battle on a fair and level field, but neither will I tolerate an attack aimed at the innocent. The only ones who should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed! Wherever oppressors have abuse their power by attacking those who are powerless, we shall appear again. No matter how mighty, or formidable our foe may be! Those of you with power, fear us! Those of you without it, rally behind us! We, the Black Knights, shall be the ones who stand in judgment of this world."

'And now, I have some lose ends to tie up.' Lelouch snuck into his personal transport, which he had Jeremiah clear out and headed towards his knightmare, which had Villetta standing in front of it with familiar red rings around her eyes.

Upon his entry, his loyal knight greeted him, "Everything went according to your plan, your majesty. No-one saw anything suspicious." Lelouch smirked before turning to Villetta.

"Thank you for acting as my decoy, Villetta, now for Allen Spacer's sake I suggest you forget all about this and head back to your usual station."

"Yes, your highness."

Yes. Everything was perfect.

 **Sorry if this chapter seemed a little rushed, I try not to bore you by giving you lengthy descriptions of scenes that you have already seen.**


	14. Chapter 12: The aftermath

**Thank you all! I really appreciate all of your support.**

The aftermath of the Black Knight's introduction went in several directions. This time, there was conflicting opinions towards them on both sides. Unlike when Cornelia ruled are 11, the Japanese did not feel any immediate danger without her taking down resistant groups alongside with civilians, so the Black Knights did not receive as many recruits as they did last time. The JLF also held hostility towards them, although the JLF didn't exactly like the Black Knights the first time, this time there was even more hostility towards them because Zero had not made any appearances previous to killing their men.

Even with all this, Lelouch was still receiving a great deal of extra work trying to organise the Black Knights, added to the amount of work he had as his military persona, which had already been increased as he now had another major terrorist group to 'deal with', as well as having to deal with the introduction of the drug, Refrain and being pestered by Cornelia, who was now concerned with his safety again.

Cornelia had sent Daltron and his sons over already to protect Euphemia, but she had decided that he would have to take care of his own security.

With all this extra work, and refusing to trusting it Hawkins, he had to dump some (maybe most) of it on Jeremiah, who accepted it without complaint, and C.C. who took it with a glare, it seemed she was still giving him the silent treatment.

Amongst all the other concerns, he had another to deal with as well, yesterday, Lelouch had been handed a request to join the Black Knights from Diethard. That bastard had joined Schneizel in the previous timeline and had kept secrets from him, but if Lelouch did things the right way this time, he and the other Black Knights shouldn't betray Lelouch in the first place, so Lelouch confirmed Diethard's request, but Lelouch would keep an eye on him this time.

Euphemia had ordered that after the incident that Abbigail should take time off after the trauma, and today was the day of her return. Abbigail had entered the office room, silent as she usually was, but there was something off about her movements as she made her way to her desk, they were ridged, shaky.

Hawkins was usually very reasonable, but he always seemed to find the need to chastise Abbigail when he could, even when it was obvious that he shouldn't.

"Did your uncle call you to tell you how disgraceful it was of you to cower the way you did, I heard that the princess actually had to comfort you." There was a long pause of silence.

"No. He didn't call at all."

For once Hawkins' stern face faltered, "At all!?" Abbigail remained silent this time, and she attempted to begin working again, typing really slowly, compared to her usual rapid typing.

Not at all? Lelouch knew that Euphemia had almost as much work as he did, and from what Abbigail had told him, all the personal she knew hated her, that would mean that she had spent the last two weeks in isolation.

Lelouch sighed, "I need a break… Abbigail, why don't you play a game of chess with me?"

Abbigail flinched, "Um, I-"

"Come on." Lelouch persuaded.

"Uh, OK."

Lelouch moved to his personal office, and they, mainly Lelouch, set up his chess board in an uncomfortable silence.

"Which side do you want to play as?" Lelouch asked, and Abbigail shrugged.

"Then I will take black." And the two sat down at their respective places.

There was a long pause before Lelouch prompted, "Go on, start."

"Uh, OK." Abbigail nervously moved a pawn a single space. Lelouch responding by moving one of his two spaces. Abbigail stared down at the board, squinting.

'Is she planning out a strategy already, I wasn't expecting much from this game but maybe it will be an amusement after all.'

"Um, Lelouch," Abbigail started, pointing to a bishop. "How many spaces can that one move?" Lelouch face faulted.

"Sorry, I haven't played this game before, I tried to tell you." Putting his hand to his forehead, Lelouch sighed.

"That doesn't matter, I have a question to ask you. Are you alright?" Abbigail's eyes widened.

"Well… um, I wouldn't say I'm as good as I was before… But I'm OK. I just have to get back to work and I will get over it."

"You seemed pretty scared." Lelouch commented.

"I was. I was terrified. I am just such a scaredy-cat; I didn't know what to do. All I could think about was what if they killed me." So there was nothing deeper to it than that, how disappointing. "But then… they came, u-uh, I-I, uh, I am really sorry, I know that you will disagree, Lelouch but, I am really grateful to the Black Knights for saving me-, saving us, I mean saving the hostages. I don't mean to insult you, as I know that them rescuing the hostages didn't look good for you, but if it wasn't for them I'm pretty sure I would be dead." Lelouch was surprised, but chuckled.

"I'm really just glad Euphie and yourself are OK… On another topic, did you find any more information about Hawkins." Abbigail shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't found anything else so far, but I will keep looking."

When Lelouch walked into the Camelot research centre, he had to duck to avoid a flying projectile that looked suspiciously like a spanner. Lloyd and Cecile appeared to be arguing, and Suzaku seemed to be a very distressed bystander. Cecile was the first to notice Lelouch's entry, and was horrified at the sight of the spanner almost hitting his head.

"Prince Lelouch, I'm so terribly sorry, we didn't see you there."

Lelouch smiled, "It's fine. Lloyd, do you mind if I borrow Suzaku?"

"Yea, yea, sure." Lloyd just seemed to be happy that Jeremiah wasn't here to see the spanner incident. Because Lelouch dumped a large proportion of his workload on Jeremiah, Jeremiah was too busy to be able to able to come with Lelouch, much to his knight's distress.

"Hey Lelouch!" Talking to Suzaku had become a common occasion for Lelouch, as he desperately wished to know how Nunnally was at Ashford, and as such, Suzaku now felt comfortable enough to talk to Lelouch informally at work. The two moved out of the way.

"How the student council doing are they better than after the Lake Kawaguchi incident?" This time, it was Nunnally who had Suzaku join the council, or rather forced Milly to force him to join.

"You know Ashford's antics, Milly just thought of another over the top event and everything was back to normal."

"That's good. And Ally, how's she doing?" Lelouch asked using their code name for Nunnally.

"She misses you, but with the student council, she doesn't have the time to be upset."

"She better not get hurt." Lelouch said over-protectively.

"Don't worry, I'm looking after her." Lelouch knew he could trust Suzaku to do that. Funny, it almost seemed that his original plan to have Suzaku protect Nunnally this time become a reality without him having to do any pushing, but that reminded him of why he came to talk to Suzaku in the first place.

"That reminds me. Suzaku, as you may know already, a prince or princess has right to have a personal royal guard in charge of their security."

"Yea, I've heard about that. Don't tell me you're making your own royal guard, are you?" Suzaku said in slight disbelief, knowing Lelouch's attitude towards his own royalty.

"That's right, and you're the first person I am asking to join, what do you say?"

 **Before anyone asks if it is OK for Lelouch to place Suzaku in his royal guard when Schneizel owns the Camelot project, as Imperator, Lelouch controls all of Area 11's military, and Suzaku is enrolled as part of Area 11's military.**


End file.
